A Suicide Bomber Was Closing In...

Reading Michael Yon on Friday, I noted in his article he was on his way to Lashkargar, Afghanistan. He talked about the poppy fields and the base they were building for the British who are taking over the area. He discussed the security issues there. At the end of his post, he talked about feeling that he wasn't very safe and that he was right, a suicide bomber was closing in. That was Friday, April 14th.

As a note on how slow some of the news travels from this place, the AP reports today (Saturday) that:

Elsewhere in Helmand, a Taliban suicide car bomber rammed a British military convoy in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gar on Friday, wounding three British soldiers and one Afghan national, coalition officials said.

But, the thing that he didn't discuss was also telling since its probable he knew what was up before hand:

SARTAK, Afghanistan - Security forces backed by U.S.-led coalition helicopters attacked a suspected Taliban hideout in southeastern Afghanistan, sparking an intense battle that killed 41 rebels and six police, a senior official said Saturday. [snip]

Ullah said Afghan police surrounded Sartak, about 25 miles southwest of Kandahar, on Friday morning and asked villagers to evacuate, but some were still inside their homes when the fighting broke out.[snip]

The violence also is a growing concern to other nations contributing troops under the mandate of NATO, which is doubling its current force of 10,000 troops to about 21,000 by November, as it gradually assumes command of all the international forces in the country. Some 6,000 mainly British, Canadian and Dutch troops have started moving into the rebellious southern provinces.

I'd stay tuned to Michael's site if you want to get a good picture of the Afghanistan situation, or, as we who watch call it, "the forgotten war". The battle for Iraq dies down and Afghanistan starts heating up. It appears the mujihadeen feel its safer to go to Afghanistan now to fight the much smaller forces arrayed there than to go head to head with our boys in Iraq. This is a multi-front war and we should not forget that.